Wednesday is Boss's Day, and while I never expected to be a boss, I'm grateful now for managers who gave me opportunities and helped me learn the ropes.

“Sometimes working as a manager means you spend hours resolving squabbles between members of your team. Sometimes it means you have to lay off an employee, or participate in some other similarly odious task ... However, for me, the rewards — both in terms of higher pay and, more importantly, job satisfaction — have been worth the challenges.”

I have a confession to make, and it's one that will explain a lot to the people I've managed at various companies over the years.

Here goes: I have no formal management training.

Whew! What a relief to get that secret off my chest!

(Those who have worked with me are saying, "Aha! Now it all makes sense!")

I have taken a few "principles of management" classes during my career, but I don't have any kind of administration or management credential to put after my name on my résumé.

Rather, I was trained to be a journalist. My college classes focused on newswriting, editing, page design and the like.

While I was in school, lo those many years ago, it seemed like those classes would suffice. I aspired to be a newspaper reporter, and I assumed that I would continue in various reporting gigs throughout my career.

But a funny thing happened on the way to that assumed destiny.

An editor position opened at one of the newspapers at which I worked, and my boss offered me the job. (I assume this offer was made out of desperation, but I never asked, and I don't really want to know.)

Without thinking of the effect this would have on my reporting career — but focusing, instead, on the chance to make a few extra cents per hour to help support my growing family — I took the job.

I didn't have any idea how to manage people or be "the boss," so I survived my first few years by following my instincts, by seeking the advice of my dad and father-in-law and by mimicking the behaviors of my own favorite supervisors.

Fortunately, I didn't flame out or fail spectacularly — or at least, nobody told me I did. So I continued to move into other management positions for various organizations, learning as I went by observing others, reading books and articles and seeking feedback from people with whom and for whom I worked.

And now, about 15 years after taking that first editor job, I find myself managing one permanent team of 10 people, serving as interim manager for another seven people, and thoroughly enjoying this job that I never expected to have.

I was talking to a colleague about this the other day. We were commenting on the fact that some supervisors love the part of the job that involves coming up with big ideas and trying to bring them to fruition, but not the part that includes managing a group of people on an everyday basis.

I found myself saying that I enjoyed the people management part of the job. And you know what? I really do.

That's not to say it's always fun. Sometimes working as a manager means you spend hours resolving squabbles between members of your team. Sometimes it means you have to lay off an employee, or participate in some other similarly odious task. And sometimes it means taking the blame from your superiors when one of your team members makes a mistake.

However, for me, the rewards — both in terms of higher pay and, more importantly, job satisfaction — have been worth the challenges.

That doesn't mean management is for everyone, though. A recent survey by Robert Half Technology, a provider of IT professionals on a project and full-time basis, found that only 15 percent of IT workers said they would prefer to manage others. On the other hand, 23 percent said they preferred to work as individual contributors, and 52 percent preferred both roles equally.

Of those respondents who said they would prefer to manage others, 56 percent said they enjoyed the coaching aspect of such a job. Another 20 percent said they liked the more defined career path of managers, and 11 percent said they preferred a management track due to the higher pay.

Popular Comments

I once worked at a government think tank in Washington DC. When I was promoted
to manager, I had to take fairly extensive training with other new managers.
All it did, sadly, was teach us that we really didn't want to be managers.
I'll
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10:15 a.m. Oct. 17, 2013

Top comment

The Solution

Dayton, OH

The problem with surveys is they put words into peoples' mouths. You have
a limited set of pre-written statements you can choose from.

Many
"regular" employees don't want to become a manager because they
don't want
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Greg Kratz is an independent business columnist for DeseretNews.com and the Deseret News. Previously he was the Managing Editor of the paper's website. Prior to joining Deseret Digital Media, Greg was the assignment editor more ..